LYON, France (AP) — France captain Antoine Dupont is training lightly with major hurdles still to clear before he can possibly play again at the Rugby World Cup.
Dupont rejoined the squad on Sunday, 10 days after surgery to repair a facial fracture that has jeopardized any further participation in the tournament by the player widely regarded as the world's best.
The Rugby World Cup poster boy was injured in an illegal head-on-head tackle against Namibia. Dupont passed the last concussion protocols on Tuesday.
His next step is a last checkup with his surgeon next Monday, meaning he won't be available for France's last pool game against Italy this Friday. Unbeaten France leads Pool A but it's a must-win game for both teams to qualify for the quarterfinals.
While team health manager Bruno Boussagol said on Tuesday that “everything is on track with Antoine,” he tempered expectations by adding Dupont had more important boxes to tick before becoming available for the quarters next week, if France advances.
“The prerequisite is the surgeon," Boussagol said. "For as long as we don't have the (surgeon's approval), we cannot look at the rugby side of things and contact. Even if he has the green light from the surgeon, we will look at his comeback in a progressive way, like we would with any player returning to the pitch.
"If the opinion of the surgeon is good, if he passes that test, we move into another stage. We will have to see how he reacts. Is he capable of getting involved in contact? Does he have the physical capacity? Does he still have any concerns?
“The third stage is the choice of the coaches. Just because Antoine is on the pitch doesn't mean that he's going to play. That is the third stage which must be decided by the coaches, once they have been updated about Antoine with the rest of the staff. They will discuss that and they can take their decision. There are three important stages but it is all conditional on the approval of the surgeon.”
The backup scrumhalves are Maxime Lucu and Baptiste Couilloud, and fullback Thomas Ramos said he was confident France will be OK with them.
“Antoine is our captain and he is very influential in our game. We have two other quality scrumhalves who are also waiting for their chance to express themselves,” Ramos said. “We said to ourselves that what had been our strength for the last four years was the group as a whole and the confidence we had in each of our players. The other two have our full confidence and we have no doubt that things will go well (if they have to play).”
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